Think Easter: Does it conjure up images of fluffy chicks and chocolate eggs? Not in the retail trade. According to one store executive, Easter has turned into a testosterone-fuelled battleground as stores slash the price of chocolate eggs to pull in shoppers.

Over the coming weekend the British population will spend £220m on 80m Easter eggs.

More upmarket, premium-priced eggs will be sold this year than ever before as shoppers increasingly concerned about the provenance and quality of their food trade up to organic and Fairtrade eggs. Asda, for instance, expects to sell 10% more luxury and organic eggs this year, while Woolworths doubled its order for Green & Black's organic eggs. It believes it will sell them all and plans to double its order again next year.

But at the bottom end of the market for basic Cadbury, Nestlé and Mars eggs, a price war has broken out.

Five years ago a hollow chocolate egg in a box with two bars of chocolate cost about £2.99. Last year they were down to three for £5. This year they are even cheaper: Woolworths has been selling such eggs at three for £3.

But even at that low price it was trounced by Tesco, which was using a buy-one-get-one-free promotion at £1.49 - or just 74p an egg. According to Tony Page, commercial and marketing director at Woolworths and a former Asda senior executive, the price cutting is driven entirely by the big supermarkets. "Do we want to be that cheap? No, not in an ideal world. But we have to be competitive."

The big grocers, he says, are using Easter eggs simply to pull in shoppers. "They are as near as dammit loss leaders," he said yesterday. "There is a lot of testosterone circulating inside the big grocers to get the best headline prices. They have just become a footfall driver."

Tesco refused to comment on Easter egg prices. A spokesman for the biggest supermarket chain said he was "reluctant" to comment "as we'll be used as the de facto industry voice".

Mr Page said the prices being charged on the shelves bore no relation to the cost of the product. "The price deflation is driven by competition in the market. It does not reflect cost deflation. And it does not reflect the value of the product," he said.

One retail executive said schoolchildren were now going into supermarkets to buy eggs, not as Easter gifts but for their daily chocolate fix. "It is cheaper than buying countlines [standard chocolate bars like Mars and Snickers]," she said. "Kids are very savvy shoppers. Instead of buying single bars, they go and buy an Easter egg."

Mr Page drew a parallel between Easter eggs and CDs, DVDs, bottled beer and big tins of Christmas chocolates - all items where supermarket muscle has slashed prices - and was convinced the savage price-cutting was devaluing products in the eyes of consumers.

Woolworths has hit out at the supermarkets on several occasions for devaluing music and movies, pointing to the plunging price of DVDs. New blockbuster releases retailed at £12.99-£14.99 three years ago, but by last year had fallen to less than £10. And the screw, said Mr Page, is still turning. The new James Bond release, Casino Royale, was on sale in Woolworths last week at just £7.

Big tins of popular chocolates such as Roses and Quality Street have also been targeted. Just a couple of years ago they were priced at £10 each. Last Christmas shoppers could get two tins for £10.

Mr Page described the market for Easter eggs as "a battleground", where the grocers were putting "ego ahead of business sense". Profit margins, he said, were absolutely wafer thin.

A spokeswoman for Cadbury acknowledged "there has been more promotional activity this year than in previous years". But the chocolate maker, which also owns Green & Black's, was unconcerned with the impact low prices might have on its brand. "There has been a commoditisation at one end of the market, but people are also trading up at the other end of the market," she said. "If promotions drive more volume then that is happy days for us."

Asda denied it was devaluing the product or using chocolate eggs as loss leaders.

"We sell lots of things at low prices and Easter is a time to make sure we have something to suit all pockets," said a spokeswoman. "We have bargain eggs for families on a budget."